Liverpool fans can dream but they shouldn't worry about the past, says Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp Manager of Liverpool celebrates at the end of the EFL Cup Quarter-Final match between Liverpool and Leeds United at Anfield on November 29, 2016 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

“These boys cannot carry the history. I know a good decision in life is when you know about problems, think about them and put them away.

“If you are nervous enough to pick the history and say ‘in this year we lost it in this game and in that year we lost it in this game and then we had not the right manager and not the right players blah blah blah’, it makes no sense.

“This is a completely new team, a new manager in the first full year, so we start our history.

“That City or Chelsea or Leicester was last year champion does not help them this year.

“Anything that could disturb our way, we should put away.

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“Okay, I know if you are still around in the last 10 games, pressure is there.

“My feeling is we can win everything and have nothing to lose. So let’s go for it.”

Changing the mindset of supporters has been a priority for Klopp ever since announcing on his unveiling he wanted to “turn doubters into believers”.

Nor has he been averse to taking fans to task, such as during last week’s home win against Sunderland when, with the scoreline goalless, the Reds boss demanded greater volume from the Anfield crowd.

It could come across as grandstanding. But it’s revealing how supporters instantly respond to Klopp and are made to feel involved by the German – and is why his latest message won’t fall on deaf ears.

James Milner scores Liverpool's fifth against Hull - a game Jurgen Klopp did not regard as being straightforward

“Really I can’t understand, when I sometimes hear people in the stadium say when we don’t score early enough and ‘in 1987 we lost a game after 3-0 and a lead’ and everyone in Liverpool knows each story around each game if you want you always can pick one out and say ‘after 2-0 at home against Stoke we lost in 1984’ so they are still nervous,” he says.

“I have not this knowledge so I am cool in these moments.

“There’s a long way to go. We have created a kind of base, absolutely it’s good, but we need to work on this base until the final day.

“But it is difficult in this league and everyone knows it – but everything that is no advantage to us we should ignore because we have enough problems, so we should not think about things that could disturb our way and it will be all good.”

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Only once in the Premier League era have Liverpool accrued more points after 13 games than the 30 they have won heading into Sunday’s trip to Bournemouth.

But the experience of leading Borussia Dortmund to two Bundesliga titles means Klopp is acutely aware praise for his team’s enterprising start to the campaign should be tempered.

“It doesn’t feel like this perfect start or whatever,” he says. “It feels only like we did what we had to do.

“Until now, nobody has celebrated anything. I think the obvious thing is not to talk about it. We won’t get carried away.

“Everything we have done until now has been really hard work. Nothing of it felt like ‘woah, that was easy’.

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“One of the clearest results was against Hull but even in this game the first 15 minutes felt difficult then some things worked together.

“At this moment there is no risk that we could fly. Nobody thinks of May or another month or next year.”

Not, Klopp insists, that there is any time for contemplation, such is the relentless run of fixtures with Liverpool now fitting a two-legged EFL Cup semi-final against Southampton in January into their crammed calendar.

And with Wembley near once again, the Reds boss can sense the growing expectation among fans who have seen the Reds lift just one trophy in the past decade.

“What we feel is the good mood,” he says. “That’s what we feel. Until now, I cannot feel higher or bigger expectations.

“It’s clear when you are top of table or second or third or around the interesting places, it’s normal that people around start dreaming.

“The only thing around the stadium as I understand is we are still all on the way, all together.

“It is not that I have to cool down, I only tell how exactly how we feel here: good, confident. I know I have a strong team. I know it. I said it before the season and thank God, everybody knows it.

“With the fixtures now where December, January all that stuff, two more games in January against Southampton or maybe another one hopefully in the FA Cup, that is really intense, so there’s no time (for us) to dream.”